






















LEAGUE FOR 

INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY 

70 Fifth Avenue, New York City 


Object : ‘'Education for a New Social Order 
Based on Production for Use and Not for Profit.” 

The League invites those in sympathy with its 
object to join its ranks as student ($1), active 
($3), contributing ($5), sustaining ($25) mem¬ 
bers, and to assist in the organization of college 
and city groups. Write for information. 


OFFICERS 

( 1923 - 1924 ) 

President, ROBERT MORSS LOVETT, Harvard 
Vice Presidents 

EVANS CLARK, JAS. H. MAURER VIDA D. SCUDDER, 
Amherst Smith 


Chairman Ex. Com. 
NORMAN THOMAS, Princeton 


Director 

HARRY W. LAIDLER, Wesleyan 


Treasurer 

STUART CHASE, Harvard 


Field Secretary 

PAUL BLANSHARD, Michigan 


The L. I. D. is governed by an Executive Committee of 
twenty-five, assisted by a Student Council and a National 
Council. College students should communicate with Inter¬ 
collegiate Department, L. I. D. 






RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 

IN THE 

AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT 

i"/ T] @ A *7 o 

ll -I J o v I ^ ^ Syllabus 

By HARRY W. LAIDLER 

* C to _ 

INTRODUCTION 


Coming of Trade Unionism 

T HE American labor movement is not an accident. It 
is a normal development in response to definite eco¬ 
nomic and social needs. At the time of the formation 
of the American republic most workers in this country either 
labored on the farms, were handicraftsmen—owners of their 
own small businesses—or were apprentices in the shops 
looking forward to becoming master workmen within a com¬ 
paratively few years. With the development of steam and 
electricity, the small shops were displaced by large factories 
and stores, and scores of workers were brought together un¬ 
der the same roof. 

These new groups of wage-earners were, for the most part, 
without any share in the ownership of the tools and machines 
with which they worked. They suffered from low wages, 
from long hours, from unsanitary and unsafe working con¬ 
ditions, from unemployment, from autocratic dictation from 
above and from other social evils. They discovered that only 
through combining with their fellows would they be in a 
position to bargain with their employers on anything like 
equal terms. The formation of trade and industrial unions 
was the result. 

\ 

Groups in American Labor 

In the United States at present there are several groups 
of organized workers. By far the largest federation of unions 
is the American Federation of Labor, which includes more 

3 





than one hundred national and international unions, and a 
membership of about 3,000,000. Outside of the A. F. of L. 
are the four railroad brotherhoods with a total membership 
of about 400,000, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of 
America with about 150,000, the Industrial Workers of the 
World, and a few other organizations. 

The I. W. W. advocates an industrial rather than a craft 
form of organization, and among its stated aims is the aboli¬ 
tion of the wage system and the forming of “the structure 
of the new society within the shell of the old.” Its mem¬ 
bership—small in proportion to its influence—exists chiefly 
among migratory workers on the farm, in the lumber camps 
and on the seaboard. Government persecution during and 
after the war has greatly interfered with its activities. Several 
unions within the A. F. of L. are industrial unions, chief 
among them the United Mine Workers of America, although 
the large majority are organized along trade or craft lines. 

Some A. F. of L. Policies 

American labor unions, as typified by the American Fed¬ 
eration of Labor, have concentrated their efforts primarily 
on the securing of “a fair day's wage for a fair day’s work,” 
shorter hours and union recognition. They have thus far 
failed to formulate any far reaching social program, and the 
majority have stood for the present order of industrial so¬ 
ciety. They have also refused to organize a separate politi¬ 
cal party of their own. They have done little to attract the 
Negro workers, and in many instances have not admitted 
them into the union. They have fought to keep up the bars 
against immigration and have failed to reach effectively the 
recent immigrants in the steel and other industries. Since the 
war, the A. F. of L. has refused membership in the more 
moderate of the two trade union internationals—the Interna¬ 
tional Federation of Trade Unions, with headquarters in Am¬ 
sterdam—because of the latter’s advocacy of social ownership 
and of a general strike in case of threatened war. In several 
respects American trade unionists have lagged behind their 
European brothers, although, on account of the newness of 
the country, the extensive natural resources and the remark¬ 
able development of machine industry, their standard of liv¬ 
ing is higher than is that of the workers on the Continent. 


4 


The Coming Change 


Various events, however, are leading to a decided change 
in the social outlook of the American trade union movement. 
The workers have gained, in many industries, the elementary 
rights for which they so long fought. At the same time they 
are finding it more difficult than did their predecessors to 
rise out of the wage-earning class. They are confronted with 
increasing concentration of industrial control. The world 
war, high living costs, sweeping court injunctions and Su¬ 
preme Court decisions, aggressive anti-union campaigns on 
the part of business groups, and the formation of powerful 
employers’ organizations have all combined during the past 
few years to cause many of them to take stock of their old 
tactics, and to ask whether new tactics should be adopted to 
meet new conditions.* 


♦ It is assumed that groups using this pamphlet as a basis for study 
are acquainted with the general development of organized labor in this 
country and with the background of the trade union movement in Great 
Britain. Those who are not familiar with the British movement which 

serves to explain our own struggles, should read Sidney and Beatrice Webb’s 
History of Trade Unionism (N. Y.: Longmans, 1920), their Industrial 
Democracy (1920), Arthur Gleason’s What the Workers Want (N. Y.: 
Harcourt & Brace, 1920), and similar works. 

Dr. Leo Wolman has recently compiled an excellent Outline of the 

American Labor Movement, a syllabus for study classes, prepared for the 
Workers’ Education Bureau, 476 West 24th Street, N. Y. City (10 cents). 

Among other pamphlets are George Soule, Recent Developments in Trade 
Unionism, and Joseph Schlossberg, Problems of Labor Organizations (N. Y.: 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers, 31 Union Square, N. Y. C.) 

One of the best bibliographies on trade unionism to be found anywhere 
is Savel Zimand’s Modem Social Movements (N. Y.: The H. W. Wilson 

Co., 1921), pp. 1-66. The book also contains a synopsis of the trade union 
movement throughout the world. Various issues of the American Labor 
Year Book (Rand School of Social Science, 7 E. 15th St., N. Y. City) 
are a mine of information. 

Among the general books on American labor that should be consulted 
are those of Mary Beard, Short History of the American Labor Movement 
(N. Y.: Workers Education Bureau, 1920); Perlman, History of Trade 
Unionism in the United States (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1923) ; Robert F. Hoxie, 
Trade Unionism in the United States (N. Y.: Appleton, 1919), John R. 
Commons and others, History of Labor in the United States, (N. Y.: Mac¬ 
millan, 1918, 2 vols.), F. T. Carlton, Organized Labor in American History 
(N. Y.: Appleton, 1920); Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems (N. Y.: 
Macmillan, 1905) ; G. S. Watkins, An Introduction to the Study of Labor 
Problems (N. Y.; Thos. Y. Crowell, 1922) ; G. G. Groat, An Introduction 
to the Study of Organized Labor in America (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1916), 
and Paul H. Douglas and others. The Worker in Modern Society (A Source 
Book, Chicago: University of Chicago, 1923). 

5 



I. TOWARD A LABOR PARTY 


“Rewarding Your Friends” 


1 a result of these developments, a number of interna¬ 



tional unions—though as yet but a small minority—are 


undertaking activities formerly regarded as foreign to 
the labor movement. Among other things, they are giving an 
impetus to the formation of an American labor party. 

During the sixties and seventies trade unionists in various 
parts of the country made several attempts to organize an in¬ 
dependent political party. Little, however, was accomplished. 
In some instances, too much attention was diverted from 
trade union organization work to political campaigning, and 
dissensions arose within the ranks of labor. 

Witnessing these failures on the part of the old Knights 
of Labor and other groups, the American Federation of La¬ 
bor, organized in the early eighties, decided not to lend itself 
to the labor party idea, but to adopt the policy of “rewarding 
yours friends and punishing your enemies.” 

Applied to the political life of the country, this shibboleth 
meant that labor should vote on election day for candidates 
on the Republican or the Democratic ticket who were most 
favorable, or least antagonistic, to organized labor. If candi¬ 
dates of the Socialist or other political party of the workers 
had a chance of election, the American Federation of Labor 
officials would at times urge labor to support such candidates. 
After election some of the candidates favored on the old party 
tickets actually stood for labor measures. In many instances, 
however, their loyalty to their party organizations proved far 
stronger than their loyalty to labor, and they did little to ad¬ 
vance labor’s cause. So frequently have those whom labor 
has favored in the two old parties deserted labor after 
election, and so often has its non-partisan policy led to the 
boycotting of the real labor men on the Socialist and other 
minority party tickets, that the Federation’s policy has often 
been described as that of “rewarding your enemies and pun¬ 
ishing your friends ” 


Results of A. F. of L. Policy 


Without a stronger labor or Socialist party, the Federation 
has found it difficult to get through the American legislatures 

6 



important labor measures, although its legislative agents have 
beset every session of national and state assemblies for years 
in behalf of such legislation. Much of the labor legislation 
passed has not been vigorously enforced, while some of the 
most valuable laws have been declared unconstitutional by 
the Supreme Court of the United States or have been so inter¬ 
preted as to prove innocuous. Furthermore, labor has been 
the victim of sweeping injunctions issued by judges belong¬ 
ing to the two old parties, its right to strike, to picket, to boy¬ 
cott at critical times has been denied, its funds have been held 
up, its leaders arrested. 

For many years, the Socialist party has maintained that the 
non-partisan policy of the American Federation of Labor 
was of little value, but this policy has been persisted 
in except in such sections as in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, the 
east side of New York and a few other districts. 

Conference For Progressive Political Action 

A change, however, is now gradually taking place. In 
February, 1922, William H. Johnston, president of the Ma¬ 
chinists, Warren S. Stone, Grand Chief of the Brotherhood 
of Locomotive Engineers, and representatives of many of the 
railway unions, called together a Conference for Progres¬ 
sive Political Action to consider the political situation and to 
decide what labor should do to mobilize its political power. 
Representatives of various trade unions, of the Socialist par¬ 
ty, of the Farmer-Labor party, of the League for Industrial 
Democracy and of other labor and progressive groups were 
invited to send delegates. The Workers’ party, a commu¬ 
nist organization, was excluded. The delegates from the rail¬ 
way unions were given the largest number of votes. The 
Conference denounced the policies of the two old parties, 
but refused to form a new party. It permitted the Socialists 
and other groups, however, freedom of action in voting for 
their own candidates. 

The success of a number of progressives in the 1922 elec¬ 
tions ; the belief of many unions that they must bend all of 
their energies toward recouping the losses which resulted from 
the open shop drive, and the personal loyalty of many labor 
leaders to politicians in the old parties kept the conference, 
in its December meeting of 1922, from coming out flat-footed 
for a labor party. 


7 


The small Farmer-Labor party soon tired of this policy of 
“watchful waiting/’ resigned from the conference and called 
another conference in Chicago in July, 1923, to form a na¬ 
tional labor party. But the Workers’ party “captured” this 
conference, and the upshot was the formation of a Federated 
Farmer-Labor party, controlled largely by the communists. 
The Farmer-Labor party and strong miners’ and other union 
groups hereupon withdrew, leaving the communists in con¬ 
trol of the new organization. The Socialist party remained 
with the Conference for Progressive Political Action. 

Among the large labor organizations which have already 
gone on record in favor of a labor party are the United Mine 
Workers, the International Typographical Union, the Inter¬ 
national Ladies’ Garment Workers and the Amalgamated 
Clothing Workers—all but the last named being members of 
the American Federation of Labor. Several state federa¬ 
tions of labor have taken similar action, as, for instance, the 
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho and 
Washington State Federations. Hundreds of local unions 
and city labor councils favor a new party. However, the 
overwhelming majority of delegates at the Portland Conven¬ 
tion in October, 1923, voted against a separate party. 

In New York City the Socialists, the Farmer-Laborites 
and some of the more progressive unions formed in 1922 a 
local American Labor party. 

Cooperation With Farmers 

To win a majority of seats in Congress, a labor party in 
America must have the support of the more progressive ele¬ 
ments among the farmers. 

The farmers in the west have been in the vanguard of 
progressive movements in recent years. They feel them¬ 
selves victims of the “money trust,” of the railroads, the 
farm machinery trusts, the grain speculators. They have 
formed great cooperative societies for buying and selling 
their produce, so as to avoid exploitation by the middle¬ 
men. They have organized Non-partisan Leagues with a 
program of state ownership of grain elevators, warehouses 
and other properties. And in such states as North Dakota 
and Minnesota they have also recorded themselves in favor 
of progressive labor legislation. They want a good home 
market and desire that the city workers shall get good wages 
so as to increase their power of consumption. They want a 

8 


foreign market, and for that reason favor an international 
policy which will help Europe to get on its feet again. In 
many states they realize that they must have the support of 
organized labor in order to put their policies into operation, 
while organized labor desires the farmers’ support. In some 
cases the interests of these two groups differ, but on the 
whole they have far more in common than they have with 
any other groups. And so in America one sees now in Min¬ 
nesota (where they have elected Henrik Shipstead and Mag¬ 
nus Johnson to the Senate on the Farmer-Labor party ticket), 
in Wisconsin, in North Dakota and elsewhere the beginnings 
of a third party of labor and of farmers. 

As a result of these tendencies conditions seem to be shap¬ 
ing themselves in America toward the organization of a strong 
farmer-labor political party, advocating, among other things, 
the public ownership of railroads, mines, natural resources 
and other basic industries, a reconstruction of the credit sys¬ 
tem, state encouragement to cooperative enterprises, and ad¬ 
vanced labor legislation. 

FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS. 

Literature —Leo Wolman, Outline of the American Labor 
Movement, Sec. 11; M. R. Carroll, Labor and Politics 
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1922); Robert Hunter, Labor 
in Politics (Chicago: Socialist Party, 1915); Morris Hill- 
quit, History of Socialism in the United States (N. Y.: 
Funk & Wagnalls, 1910) ; Laidler, Socialism in Thought 
and Action (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1920), Chs. XIV. and XV.; 
Rand School of Social Science, American Labor Year 
Book; Morris Hillquit, Samuel Gompers and Max J. Hayes, 
Double Edge of Labor's Sword (25 cent pamphlet), 
(Chicago: Socialist Party, 1914) ; Morris Hillquit and Ed¬ 
ward J. Keating, Shall a Labor Party Be Formed in Amer¬ 
ica? (Pamphlet, 25 cents, N. Y.: Rand School, 1923); 
Zimand, Modern Social Movements, pp. 177-180; E. Gaston, 
Non-partisan League (N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 
1920) ; Industrial Commission of North Dakota, The North 
Dakota Industrial Program (1920) ; Paul H. Douglas and 
others, The Worker in Modern Society, Ch. XXIII.; Loco¬ 
motive Engineers' Journal, esp. Nov., 1922, July, 1923; 
Labor Age, Feb., 1923; Labor Herald, June, 1923ff; Ameri¬ 
can Labor Monthly, August 1923; files of American Fed- 
erationist. 


9 


Political Labor Groups — Socialist Party, 2653 Washington 
Blvd., Chicago, Ill.; Farmer-Labor Party, 166 W. Wash¬ 
ington St., Chicago, Ill.; Workers’ Party, 1009 N. State 
St., Chicago, Ill.; Federated Farmer-Labor Party, 208 E. 
12th Street, New York City; Farmer-Labor Party of Min¬ 
nesota, Minneapolis, Minn.; American Labor Party, 231 E. 
14th Street, New York City; other groups are— Conference 
for Progressive Political Action, Machinists’ Bldg., Wash¬ 
ington, D. C.; National Non-partisan League, Minneapolis, 
Minn.; Legislative Committee, A. F. of L., Washington 
D. C. 

Subjects for Discussion —What have been the principal ad¬ 
vantages and disadvantages of the policy of “rewarding 
your friends and punishing your enemies?” What forces 
are now making for an independent Labor party in America? 
What forces are opposing such a move? In what respects 
could organized labor strengthen its position on the indus¬ 
trial field through a larger control of political machinery? 
Is political action supplementary or antagonistic to indus¬ 
trial action? What is the strength and the weakness of the 
syndicalist position? What lessons have British labor and 
labor on the Continent for American Labor in this respect? 

Should American labor make a coalition with the 
farmers and sections of the middle class in its attempt to 
get into power? If so, on what basis? What should be 
the principal planks in the platform of a Labor party? 


II. A PROGRAM OF NATIONALIZATION 


The Plumb Plan 

H AND in hand with this demand for independent po¬ 
litical action, the workers, in ever larger numbers, are 
urging the public ownership of important industries. 
A few years ago the Plumb Plan for railway nationalization 
held the center of attention. 

Glenn E. Plumb, a successful middle-western lawyer, who 
first represented the railway interests and then the railway 
unions, worked out a plan for railway nationalization, after¬ 
wards known as the Plumb Plan, whereby the ownership of 
the nation’s railways would reside in the nation, while the 

10 




management would be given over to a board of fifteen, one- 
third of whom would represent the community, one-third the 
railway workers, and one-third the railway administration. 
The plan was adopted enthusiastically by the railway brother¬ 
hoods and overwhelmingly endorsed by the American Fed¬ 
eration of Labor against the opposition of Samuel Gompers 
and a number of members of the executive board. The 
Plumb Plan League was formed, and through its organ, La¬ 
bor, the movement made rapid advances in trade union circles. 
Glenn Plumb died in 1922. Many of the most eager among 
the railway workers have recently had to give most of their 
time, energy and money to the mere maintenance of their or¬ 
ganizations and the plan has been temporarily shelved. 

Plans For Mine Nationalization 

In the meanwhile, the miners have been devoting consider¬ 
able attention to a nationalization program. At the 1922 con¬ 
vention of the United Mine Workers, a Nationalization Re¬ 
search Committee was appointed to assist in formulating “a 
detailed practical policy to bring about the nationalization of 
the coal mines and to aid in the dissemination of information 
among our members and the public.” The Committee, 
headed by three district presidents of the miners, John Bro- 
phy, Chairman, took up this problem and late in 1922 sub¬ 
mitted a tentative plan for the consideration of the miners. 
This plan proposes that the ownership of the mines be placed 
in the hands of the nation. It makes a distinction between 
control and administration. Control, as the Committee de¬ 
fines it, involves the fixing of coal prices and the determina¬ 
tion of the quantity and quality of the coal produced. This 
function should reside in a Federal Commission of Mines 
whose secretary should be a cabinet member. The Commis¬ 
sion would be appointed partly by the President of the Uni¬ 
ted States and partly by technical societies. The members 
would presumably represent the consuming public. 

The administration of the mines, on the other hand, would 
reside in a National Mining Council, which would include 
representatives from the miners, the administrative staff and 
the consumers. The National Mining Council would appoint 
the mine managers. The miners, in addition to representa¬ 
tion on the National Council, would elect committees in each 
mine to advise with the management. Wages would be de¬ 
ll 


termined under this plan by a Joint Board, made up of repre¬ 
sentatives of the United Mine Workers and of the public.* 

During the spring of 1923, the presidents of the miners’ 
unions in the anthracite districts of Pennsylvania proposed a 
further plan of nationalization to the Federal Coal Commis¬ 
sion, whereby the nation would take care of the mines, issue 
bonds to the mine owners, and gradually pay off these bonds 
within a fifty year period from the profits of the mines and 
from various forms of taxation. 

Super-Power Plants 

Labor is also beginning to pay increased attention to the 
public ownership and operation of super-power plants for 
the purpose of supplying electrical light, heat and power at 
cost to the people of the country. This movement received 
a distinct impetus at the Toronto Conference of the Public 
Ownership League in September, 1923, at which time the 
delegates received first hand impressions of the achievements 
of the publicly owned hydro-electric power system of the 
cities and provinces of Ontario, Canada. 

FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS. 

Literature —The latest pamphlet giving a survey and inter¬ 
pretation of the public ownership movement here and 
abroad is Harry W. Laidler’s 72 p. monograph, Public 
Ownership, issued by the League for Industrial Democracy 
(15 cents). See also Emil Davies, Collectivist State in the 
Making (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1913) ; literature of the Public 
Ownership League of America, Carl D. Thompson, Secre¬ 
tary, 127 No. Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill.; Sir Leo Chiozza 
Money, Triumph of Nationalization (London: Cassell, 
1920) ; and Walling and Laidler, State Socialism—Pro and 
Con (N. Y.: Holt, 1917) ; for the Plumb Plan of Railroad 
Nationalization, consult bibliography in Savel Zimand, 
Modern Social Movements, pp. 107-112; Glenn Plumb and 
William G. Roylance, Industrial Democracy (N. Y.: 
Huebsch, 1923) ; Douglas, et al, The Worker in Modern 
Society, pp. 916-119; and files of Labor, Locomotive En¬ 
gineers’ Journal, Machinists’ Journal, Labor Age; for 

* A dispute between President John Lewis of the United Mine Workers 
and the Nationalization Committee regarding the Committee’s activities 
in giving publicity to the plan led to the resignation of two of the three 
committee members early in 1923. 


12 



Nationalisation of Mines, see Nationalization Research 
Committee, How to Run Coal (Pamphlet: address John 
Brophy, Clearfield, Pa.) ; Frank Hodges, Nationalization of 
Mines (N. Y.: Seltzer) ; Robert W. Bruere, The Coming of 
Coal (N. Y.: Association Press, 1922); H. S. Raushen- 
busch, The Anthracite Question, (N. Y.: H. W. Wilson, 
1923); Survey Graphic on Coal, April, 1922; Labor Age, 
Feb., 1922; for Public Super-power Plants, consult Public 
Ownership League of America, and Hydro-Electric Power 
Commissions of Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Subjects for Discussion— What advantage would the railroad 
workers and miners derive from the nationalization of the 
railroads and mines as proposed in the Plumb and Nation¬ 
alization Research Committee Plans respectively? What 
would be the advantages to the public? What are the ad¬ 
vantages of public operation of super-power plants? What 
are the general advantages of social ownership as com¬ 
pared with private ownership of large industries? Of 
voluntary cooperation vs. public ownership? On what 
program of nationalization, if any, should American labor 
unite? What is the attitude of labor in your vicinity 
toward public ownership? Draw up plans for nationaliza¬ 
tion and democratic control of the mines, railroads, super¬ 
power plants and other select industries. 


III. COOPERATION AND LABOR BANKING 
A. COOPERATION 

U NTIL recently labor has shown no great interest in the 
voluntary cooperative movement, which has made such 
tremendous strides in Europe. The pioneers of co¬ 
operation in this country faced almost insurmountable ob¬ 
stacles. Cooperators have had to contend with the individual¬ 
ism of the average American. They have been confronted 
with racial antagonisms and differences. Their cooperative 
enterprises have been weakened by the roving character of 
the working population, by the competition of the chain store 
and the great department store, by the bitter opposition of 
business, large and small, by the fake experiments in coopera¬ 
tion that have taken millions of dollars from the pockets of 
the people and by the lack, until recently, of any central bu¬ 
reau to supply information regarding the right and wrong way 
to start a cooperative venture. 

13 




Recent Progress 


During the last few years, however, the movement has pro¬ 
gressed considerably. It is now estimated that there are 
about 3,000 cooperative stores in this country with a total 
membership of 750,000 and a turnover of $100,000,000 a 
year. The Finns of New England, the miners of Illinois, 
the Scandinavian and German population in Minnesota and 
Wisconsin, and the farming population in the Middle and 
Far West are taking the lead in the movement. Besides 
stores, cooperative creameries, bakeries, banks, and building 
societies are springing up in many states. 

Consumers’ vs. Producers’ Cooperation 

The American Federation of Labor has long favored the 
principle of cooperation and has a special committee on this 
movement. The Cooperative League, the central educational 
union, active in the direction of which are Dr. and Mrs. 
James P. Warbasse, contains on its board a large number of 
influential trade union leaders. 

Hundreds of city and state trade union groups have given 
their endorsement to the movement, and the labor press is 
devoting an ever larger amount of space to this subject. 

The Cooperative League gives chief attention to consum¬ 
ers’ as contrasted with producers’ cooperation. Consumers’ 
cooperative stores, organized on the Rochdale plan, give to 
each member on payment of a small membership fee one vote 
and only one vote. The surplus at the end of each quarter, 
after the payment of legitimate expenses, is distributed among 
the members in proportion to the purchases made. Interest 
on capital invested is strictly limited. The cooperative of¬ 
ficers are elected democratically by the entire membership. 
The aim is service to the consumer members, not private 
profit. 

As the increase of business generally means greater 
quarterly returns, the members have an economic interest in 
bringing in new members and in preserving the democratic 
features of the stores. As a result, the voluntary cooperative 
movement has grown and flourished. 

In contrast with consumers' cooperation is producers' co¬ 
operation, sponsored to a considerable extent by the All- 
American Cooperative Alliance. A genuine producers’ co- 

14 


perative enterprise, sometimes described as a “self governing 
workshop/’ is one in which all of the workers employed are 
part owners and have an equal voice in the election of the of¬ 
ficers and in the determination of policies. After a hundred 
years of struggle, the movement for the “self governing 
workshop” is still languishing, except where it is a practical 
adjunct of the consumers’ movement. The prime reason for 
this is that the pioneers of a successful producers’ coopera¬ 
tive find it extremely difficult to admit new workers into the 
enterprise on equal terms with themselves. The whole tend¬ 
ency of the organization is thus to become a joint stock com¬ 
pany owned and controlled by a decreasing proportion of the 
workers. It has also proved difficult for the worker-owners 
to put aside sufficient money to make needed extensions, 
to withstand periods of depression, and to submit to disci¬ 
pline imposed on them by an elected manager. 

Many very powerful organizations calling themselves pro¬ 
ducers’ cooperatives, as, for instance, the California Fruit 
Growers’ Association, now exist in the United States. In 
these organizations farmers combine for the purpose of sell¬ 
ing their product at a profit. While such associations succeed 
in keeping up the price on their products and in eliminating 
some unnecessary middle-men, they are in many instances 
little more than private corporations with a wide basis of 
ownership. 

The consumers’ cooperative movement has not as yet given 
adequate representation to labor, and has thus far found it 
difficult to enlist the active participation in control of more 
than a small minority of its membership. In many instances 
its members are interested in it only for the “savings re¬ 
turns” received at the end of the quarter. 

On the other hand, the cooperative movement is giving a 
valuable training to the working class in industrial control, 
is helping them in their daily struggles, is raising their econ¬ 
omic status, is assisting in their cultural development, is 
bringing to the front competent leadership, is eliminating cer¬ 
tain competitive wastes, and is demonstrating that industry 
can be conducted for service as well as for profit. 

B. LABOR BANKING 
The Why of Labor Banking 

The most unique recent development of a semi-coopera¬ 
tive nature in the trade union movement has been the organi- 

15 


zation during the past few years of labor banks. For years 
labor in the United States, both through its trade union trea¬ 
suries and through the individual earnings of its members, has 
possessed a great potential borrowing and lending power. 
This power has never been utilized. The trade unions have 
deposited their thousands, and in some cases their millions, 
of dollars in various capitalist banks, while individual union 
members have made in the aggregate even larger deposits. 

Many factors have forced trade union leaders to begin to 
mobilize labor's money in behalf of labor. Unions have often 
been unable to obtain credit during strikes, while the money 
which their members deposited has been put at the disposal 
of the employers whom they have been fighting. Trade un¬ 
ionists have witnessed the large profits which banks, with 
their rapid turnover, have been able to make for their own¬ 
ers. Why, they have asked, should not some of these profits 
be diverted to labor? They have become convinced that the 
power in their hands of making loans could often be made an 
instrument for inducing employers to adopt a more favorable 
labor policy, where now it is used almost wholly against la¬ 
bor. They have come to the conclusion that the way to demo¬ 
cratic self-government in industry lies through constantly in¬ 
creasing the control of labor over an ever larger number of 
industrial and financial functions, and that labor banking 
would help to do that very thing. The technical difficulties 
lately encountered by foreign born workers in sending their 
money to their relatives in other countries, especially to Rus¬ 
sia, through the channels of the ordinary bank, have given an 
added impetus to the movement. 

Machinists Lead The Way 

The International Association of Machinists was the first 
to mobilize its credit resources. It obtained an interest, 
through the purchase of stock, in the Commercial Bank of 
Washington, D. C., and ultimately acquired sufficient shares 
to hold the balance of power in this bank and to dictate its 
management and personnel. In May, 1920, the Machinists 
organized a bank of their own, the Mt. Vernon Savings Bank, 
asking outsiders to come in, though the organization held a 
majority of the stock. 

The next and more significant experiment was that of the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the most powerful of 
the railroad workers' organizations, and one that, until recent- 

16 


ly, has been regarded as among the most conservative of the 
American trade unions. 

The Railway Brotherhoods Follow 

In November, 1920, a few months after the formation of 
the Mt. Vernon Savings Bank, this union organized a bank 
of its own, called the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers 
Bank, at Cleveland, Ohio, with a capital of $1,000,000. This 
bank, in contradistinction to that of the machinists, was a 
hundred per cent trade union bank, the majority of stock be¬ 
ing owned by the Brotherhood itself, and a minority by in¬ 
dividual union members. The local Cleveland bankers fought 
the bank quite bitterly for a while, but have since stopped 
their open opposition. Its business grew so rapidly that, by the 
beginning of 1923, its assets had increased to nearly $15,- 
000,000. The union, as a result of its initial success, later 
purchased one of the most beautiful bank buildings in Cleve¬ 
land to house its Euclid Street branch. It is constructing a 
twenty story bank and office building for its central organiza¬ 
tion, has purchased a large interest in one of the prominent 
New York banks—the Empire Trust Company—and is open¬ 
ing banks in New York and in other cities. 

Features of Labor Banks 

These banks are not pure cooperation. They have been 
described as an example of “trade union capitalism.” The 
trade union owns the majority of stock, and dominates its con¬ 
trol, obtaining one vote, as in other private corporations, for 
every share of stock owned. 

These banks, however, have some cooperative features. 
Their dividends are limited to ten per cent, and all over and 
above this goes to depositors in proportion to their deposits, 
and to the expanding of the banks' facilities * While the pol¬ 
icy of these banks in investing and lending money has been a 
cautious one, they have had frequent occasion to make loans 
to those whose sympathetic labor stand had earned them the 
enmity of other banking institutions, and to refuse those 
concerns which had definitely aligned themselves with the 
anti-labor forces. They have been able to help workers in 
the building of homes, and to assist a number of cooperative 
enterprises. 

* These cooperative features do not apply to the Mt. Vernon Savings Bank. 

17 



The Amalgamated And Other Banks 

The third large international union to enter this field is 
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. In July, 
1922, the Amalgamated opened a bank in Chicago, and in the 
spring of 1923, another one in New York. The deposits 
in these institutions of four million dollars are steadily and 
rapidly growing. All of the stock in these banks must be 
owned by members of he Amalgamated Clothing Workers, 
while no member can own any more than three shares. All 
but three of the eleven members of the Board of Directors 
of the Chicago bank were chosen from the members of the 
General Executive Board of the union and of the Joint Board 
in Chicago. The president, the cashier and other important 
workers are, for the most part, practical bankers, with years 
of experience in private banks. A special feature of the 
Amalgamated Banks is the facilities which it gives to its mem¬ 
bers and depositors to send money to their relatives and 
friends in Russia. 

Other organizations have caught the banking fever. The 
large central trades council in New York City has recently 
been instrumental in organizing the Federation Bank; New 
York locals of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers, 
the International Union Bank; railway workers of Minne¬ 
apolis, the Railway Brotherhoods Bank, while the Railway 
Clerks of Cincinnati and other groups were in the fall of 
1923 planning further labor banking undertakings.* 

Advantages and Dangers 

Will a peep into the banking world and acquaintance and 
friendship with the banking interests tend to make trade 
unionists more conservative? Will their desire to do nothing 
that may disturb the growth of their banking institution tend 
to lessen their militancy at critical periods ? Or will the tak¬ 
ing over by the trade unions of an additional industrial func¬ 
tion and the demonstration that the workers are capable of 
managing a great, mysterious enterprise formerly left to re- 

* The Amalgamated Clothing Workers in 1922 also organized an invest¬ 
ment corporation known as the Russian-American Industrial Corporation, with 
a capital of $1,000,000, This corporation purchased a number of clothing fac¬ 
tories in Petrograd and Moscow. The control of the factories resides partly 
in the representatives of the corporation, and partly in representatives of the 
Soviet Government. The Amalgamated authorized the purchase at its 1922 
Convention of $50,000 worth of stock. Stock is also being purchased by large 
numbers of members of the union and by outsiders. 

18 



spected financiers whet their appetite for further conquests? 
Will they succeed, or will they commit blunders which may 
discredit the whole labor movement? Time alone will tell. In 
the meanwhile, labor banks should guard against a number 
of dangers. Among these dangers are the following: 

(1) That of hiring, on the one hand, friends of the trade 
union movement who are inexperienced in banking, or, on the 
other hand, bankers with little sympathy with the ideals of 
trade unionism; 

(2) That of lending large sums of money to cooperatives, 
to officers or to friends of the union on insufficient security, 
because of a generous desire to help the individuals or in¬ 
stitutions applying for loans; or, on the other hand, lending to 
business men whose interests might be seriously affected by 
a strike or other action of the union in control of the bank; 

(3) The placing of union banks under financial obligations 
to interests ordinarily opposed to organized labor; 

(4) The tying up of union funds in securities which can¬ 
not be readily turned into cash during an industrial crisis; 

(5) The recruiting of depositors primarily from one in¬ 
dustry or trade. For in such a case it is conceivable that too 
great a demand on the bank might be made during a strike, 
lockout or period of unemployment in the industry. 

Furthermore, trade union officials should not ordinarily 
try to combine direction of a union with the responsibility for 
running a bank, nor should they ordinarily receive salaries 
both from the trade union and the bank. Lack of harmony 
among trade union groups cooperating in the running of the 
bank might at times lead to disastrous results. 

Safeguards 

However, the banking laws in most states and the regula¬ 
tions of the Federal Reserve Banks and other systems will 
generally prove a sufficient safeguard against unsound invest¬ 
ments. The unions in most instances have thus far chosen 
technically trained bankers of broad social sympathies to con¬ 
duct the technical side of their business, and whenever trade 
union officials handle funds on a large scale, whether as in¬ 
vestors of union funds, or as borrowers—bank or no bank— 
they are confronted with most of the dangers catalogued 
above. Furthermore, the privilege of rediscounting notes in 
Federal Reserve Banks makes for safety. 

19 


FOR DISCUSSION. 

Literature —For information regarding Cooperation, write 
The Cooperative League, 167 W. 12th St., N. Y. City, and 
All-American Cooperative Commission, Brotherhood of 
Locomotive Engineers’ Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio. The head¬ 
quarters of the International Cooperative Alliance is 4 
Great Smith St., Westminster, S. W., 1, London, England, 
and of the British Cooperative Union, Holyoke House, 
Hanover St., Manchester, England; the latest and most 
complete book on cooperation is James P. Warbasse’s 
Cooperative Democracy (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1923); see 
also Sidney and Beatrice Webb’s Consumers’ Cooperation 
(N. Y.: Longmans, 1922); E. P. Harris’ Cooperation, The 
Hope of the Consumer (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1916) ; Harry 
W. Laidler’s The British Cooperative Movement (N. Y.: 
Cooperative League 5 cent pamphlet) ; Locomotive En¬ 
gineers’ Journal, December, 1922; Labor Age, June, 1922, 
February, 1923, and files of Cooperation (organ of The 
Cooperative League) ; for literature on Labor Banking, 
communicate with the banks mentioned; read Richard 
Boeckel, Labor’s Money (N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 
1923) ; D. S. Tucker, The Evolution of People’s Banks 
(Columbia University Press, 1922) ; R. F. Bergengren, Co¬ 
operative Banking (N. Y.: Macmillan); H. W. Wolff, 
People’s Banks (London: P. S. King & Son, 1919) ; Labor 
Age, June, 1922; American Labor Monthly, June, 1923; 
files of trade union journals of interested internationals; 
Atlantic Monthly, June 1923, article by George Soule. 

Subjects for Discussion —What are some of the advantages 
that labor can derive from the cooperative movement, and 
the obstacles to be overcome? What are the advantages 
and disadvantages of consumers’ and producers’ coopera¬ 
tion? What does an examination of one or more coopera¬ 
tive enterprises in your community show in regard to effi¬ 
ciency in management, status of employes, development of 
an active interest on the part of the consumer members? 
What has organized labor done for cooperation in your 
locality? How can its interest be further developed? Is 
the development of banking on the part of labor likely to 
accelerate or retard the constructive revolutionary tenden¬ 
cies of organized labor? Is labor banking likely to affect 
in any vital fashion the present credit system? Is it likely 
to assist in training for industrial self-government? 

20 


IV. WORKERS’ EDUCATION 


Labor Colleges Appear 


MERICAN labor boasts—and rightly boasts—of its 



influence as far back as the first half of the nineteenth 


century in behalf of the system of free schools. Partly 
as a result of that influence, America today has probably the 
most extensive system of public school education in the 
world.* As in other countries, however, labor has come to 
the conclusion that it must conduct an organized educational 
work among its own members if they are to receive the kind 
of training required in their struggle for better things. 

In 1907, the Rand School of Social Science was organized 
as a Socialist school for workers. In 1916 the International 
Ladies’ Garment Workers opened their “Workers’ Univer¬ 
sity,” followed by that of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
and other groups. During the past three years central bodies 
in Boston, in Denver, in Philadelphia and in other cities have 
formed Labor Colleges, and in 1921 these groups organized 
a central coordinating body, the Workers Education Bureau. 
The President of the Bureau is James H. Maurer, President 
of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor, one of the finest 
types of trade union-leaders in America. Fannia M. Cohn 
of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers is the energetic 
and progressive vice-president. On the board are some of 
the more conservative members of the Executive Committee 
of the American Federation of Labor, among them Matthew 
Woll and John P. Frey. The board thus represents many 
tendencies in the labor movement. Through labor’s educa¬ 
tional work there is developing an alliance between the work¬ 
ers by hand and the workers by brain which has, until re¬ 
cently, been sadly lacking in America. 

What is the Object of Labor Education? 

What is the object of labor education in this country? 
Some maintain that it should be to develop the capacity of 
the workers to think; to widen their social horizon; to “grat¬ 
ify their desire for the true and beautiful”; to make them 
more effective workers and citizens. Some feel that its chief 
concern should be to train the rank and file of trade unionists 

* See Hunter, Labor in Politics, p. 1. seq. 


21 




into more intelligent and effective workers within their or¬ 
ganisations, as well as to give a special technical training to 
future trade union organizers, business agents, committee¬ 
men, and strategists. 

• Another group regards workers’ education as primarily a 
means of increasing the points of contact between the work¬ 
ers and their unions. The trade unions, they say, are bound 
to be the nuclei of the industrial and social organization of 
the future, and every kind of education or other trade union 
activity which satisfies the needs and the wants of the mem¬ 
bership, enlarges the functions of the unions and strengthens 
the bonds of loyalty between the worker and his organization 
is aiding in the development of social evolution. 

There is a further group who are firmly convinced that the 
chief aim of labor education should be to arouse in the ranks 
of labor a desire for a new social order based on production 
for use rather than for profit, to teach the workers how best 
to direct their energies toward that order, and to equip them 
to assume a role of ever increasing importance in the actual 
management of industry. 

Finally there are the eclectics, who claim that all of the 
foregoing objects have a legitimate place in this cosmopoli¬ 
tan movement. 

Education By and For the Workers 

One of the most vital questions now at issue within the 
labor education movement is whether workers’ colleges 
should be financed and run entirely by the trade unions, or 
whether they should welcome the aid of universities desirous 
of establishing classes for workers. 

Officially the Workers Education Bureau has refused to 
consider as a legitimate part of the workers’ education move¬ 
ment that education which is largely subsidized by the old es¬ 
tablished colleges. The movement has everywhere wel¬ 
comed the aid of sympathetic college professors as indi¬ 
viduals in teaching classes in labor colleges. But many of 
its leaders believe that there is a vital difference in atmosphere 
between classes of workers under trade union auspices and 
classes led by the same professors under the auspices of the 
average university. Where the workers decide on the courses 
and the methods of teaching, where they hire the instruc¬ 
tors and arrange for the classroom, the atmosphere is a 

22 


“working class” atmosphere; the workers realize that they 
are getting their training as a result of the efforts of the 
union; they feel freer in discussing their problems, and they 
are more likely to utilize the training thus secured in the or¬ 
ganized labor movement. 

Education of the workers under non-working class aus¬ 
pices, on the other hand, is too likely to take the workers out 
of their class atmosphere, develop a more individualistic 
psychology, create a desire for individual, rather than so¬ 
cial advancement, and be directed toward justifying “things 
as they are.” Workers' education must involve education by 
the workers as well as for the workers. “The workers’ edu¬ 
cational movement,” writes Fannia M. Cohn, “can no more 
be entrusted to other groups than could the trade union 
movement itself be entrusted to them.” “What we are try¬ 
ing to accomplish,” declared John P. Frey, “is that the work¬ 
ers of themselves and by themselves shall determine what 
particular fields of knowledge it is necessary for them to un¬ 
derstand, and shall then provide the ways and means by 
which that knowledge shall be given.” 

On the other hand, supporters of the Bryn Mawr Summer 
School for workers and similar ventures point to the fact 
that in Great Britain the universities do assist in subsidizing 
this movement, and claim that there is no reason why the 
workers should not take advantage of the equipment which 
the universities have and for which the workers were in¬ 
directly responsible. 

Curriculum and Methods 

“The curriculum in workers’ colleges today,” declares the 
Report on Curriculum of the W. E. B., “should be mainly 
such as to enable students to be of service to the labor move¬ 
ment.” That of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ 
College for 1923-24 includes a wide range of subjects, de¬ 
signed “to give the members of the union such facts of so¬ 
cial sciences as may serve as a basis for sound conclusions, 
to help to create new and true social and spiritual values, and 
to train the members for active and successful participation 
in the labor movement, as leaders and workers.” The courses 
deal with economic and political history, economics, labor 
problems, cooperation, problems of working women, social 

23 


psychology, modern literature, English, health, public speak¬ 
ing, office management, labor publicity, etc. 

The W. E. B. is building up a “Workers’ Book Shelf,” 
containing numerous books used as texts in workers’ col¬ 
leges. Most of the workers’ universities aim to develop a 
number of intensive study groups, supplemented by large 
mass lectures and entertainments. 

The leaders of the movement insist throughout that teach¬ 
ers in their class room work should adopt the Socratic 
method, that they should reduce the lecture work to a mini¬ 
mum and should do everything possible to encourage ques¬ 
tions and discussion. 

FOR DISCUSSION GROUP. 

Literature —Literature may be secured from the Workers’ 
Education Bureau, Spencer Miller, Jr., Sec., 476 West 24th 
Street, N. Y. City; from the Rand School of Social Science, 
Algernon Lee, Director, 7 East 15th St., N. Y. City; from 
the Educational Departments of the International Ladies 
Garment Workers’ Union, Fannia Cohn, Sec., 3 West 16th 
St., N. Y. City, and of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
of America, J. B. Salutsky, Sec., 31 Union Sq., N. Y. City, 
and from Brookwood, A. J. Muste, Director, Katonah, N. 
Y., and Bryn Mawr Summer School, Bryn Mawr, Pa.; for 
the movement abroad, write to Workers’ Education Asso¬ 
ciation, 16 Harpur Street, London, England, and World 
Association for Adult Education, 13 John St., Adelphi, 
London, S. C. 2, England. Savel Zimand’s Modern Social 
Movements, pp. 61-66, and The Monthly Labor Review, 
June, 1922 (pp. 1273-1290), present excellent bibliographies 
on Labor Colleges. Arthur Gleason’s Workers Education : 
American and Foreign Experiments (N. Y.: Bureau of 
Industrial Research, 1921), is the best pamphlet on the sub¬ 
ject in this country. Also see Report of First International 
Conference on Workers’ Education (N. Y.: Workers’ Edu¬ 
cation Bureau, 1923) ; Bulletin No. 271, Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, on “Adult Working Class Education in Great 
Britain and the United States”; the American Labor Year 
Book (Rand School) ; Convention Proceedings, A. F. of L.; 
The Goose Step, by Upton Sinclair (Pasadena, Calif., Au¬ 
thor, 1923); Labor Age, April, 1922; Locomotive En¬ 
gineers’ Journal, March, 1923; files of Justice and Advance. 


24 


Subjects for Discussion —What, in your opinion, should be the 
primary goal of workers’ education in this country? Can 
a propaganda object be eliminated from workers’ educa¬ 
tion or from any education? What, if any, is legitimate and 
what illegitimate propaganda in the class room? Which 
is more important in labor education—the stimulation of 
thought and discussion, the presentation of facts, or the 
imposition on the trade unionists of certain theories? What 
are the relative dangers and advantages of university, 
state, “intellectual” and A. F. of L. control? Give your 
suggestions for an ideal series of courses for workers' 
colleges . 


V. LABOR JOURNALISM, RESEARCH, HEALTH 


A. LABOR JOURNALISM 

T HERE have also been of late important developments 
in the fields of labor journalism, in labor research and 
in labor health services, activities all closely connected 
with the workers’ educational movement. Ever since the 
beginnings of the organized labor movement in America, 
trade unionists have published their own trade journals. For 
the most part these have been devoted to accounts of the 
achievements of their organizations, reports of membership 
and financial conditions, obituaries of deceased members, 
etc. They have devoted little attention to the larger social 
problems of the day. Important exceptions have been such 
magazines as the Machinists Journal, under the able editor¬ 
ship of Messrs. Douglas and Hewitt. 

News Services 

In recent years a number of promising advances have been 
made. Perhaps the most striking of these has been the or¬ 
ganization of the Federated Press, a cooperative venture 
formed in November, 1919, by thirty-two editors of working 
class publications to supply accurate information to organ¬ 
ized labor in regard to the important industrial, political and 
social happenings of the day, information inadequately re¬ 
ported in most American newspapers. This press, the work¬ 
ers’ counterpart for the Associated Press, supplies news 

25 




each day to ninety daily, weekly and monthly labor papers, 
and in addition weekly cartoon and photographic services and 
a weekly economic news service. It employs numerous cor¬ 
respondents in America and Europe. 

The news service from this press, the editorial and news 
services of the Cooperative League, the All-American Co¬ 
operative Alliance, the League for Industrial Democracy, the 
American Federation of Labor, the American Civil Liberties 
Union, the Public Ownership League of America, and the ex¬ 
ceptionally valuable monthly service of the Labor Bureau, 
Inc., on wages, profits, living costs, etc., are helping to bring 
the trade union world in touch with the larger problems of 
labor here and abroad, and to give the workers in their im¬ 
mediate struggles a more scientific basis for action than 
formerly. 

Notable Labor Periodicals 

Among the monthlies the Locomotive Engineers’ Journal, 
under the acting editorship of Albert F. Coyle, is proving a 
pace-maker to the progressive labor journals of the country. 
Such weeklies in the needle trades as Advance, organ of the 
Amalgamated Clothing Workers; Justice, organ of the Inter¬ 
national Ladies’ Garment Workers, and the Headgear Work¬ 
er, organ of the Cap Makers’ Union, are also examples of the 
new and better labor journalism. 

The New York Leader, the reorganized New York Call, 
now owned by a number of the advanced labor unions in New 
York, and edited by Norman Thomas and Heber Blank- 
enhorn, promises to mark a new departure in daily labor 
journalism in this country. 

Among notable independent publications on the labor 
movement are Labor, formerly organ of the Plumb Plan 
League; Labor Age, a monthly specializing on the construc¬ 
tive features of the labor movement, and the American Labor 
Monthly, a critical journal with a communist slant. The 
American Federation of Labor has published for many years 
the American Federationist as its official publication. Lib¬ 
eral publications, including the Nation, the New Republic 
and the Survey are undoubtedly having an indirect effect on 
the labor movement. Such dailies as the Milwaukee Leader, 
the Seattle Union Record and the Jewish Daily Forward also 
exert considerable influence on the trade unions in their re- 


26 


spective vicinities. Hitherto labor dailies have been con¬ 
fronted with well nigh insurmountable financial obstacles, ow¬ 
ing to the difficulty of obtaining initial capital and of secur¬ 
ing advertisements from large employers of labor. They 
have also suffered from their failure to employ trained 
technicians to run the editorial and business departments of 
their papers under the general supervision, of course, of 
organized labor. 


B LABOR RESEARCH 

Research work for and by the unions has been of com¬ 
paratively recent origin. In the last few years trade union¬ 
ists have begun to realize the necessity for exact industrial 
facts as a basis for trade union demands, arbitration pro¬ 
ceedings, and publicity during trade disputes, and have oc¬ 
casionally employed the services of free lance statisticians for 
this purpose. 

Labor Bureau, Inc. 

In May, 1920, the Labor Bureau, Inc., was formed to supply 
the trade unions with facts concerning the cost of living, la¬ 
bor standards, corporation profits, industrial productivity, 
and conditions of employment; with publicity services dur¬ 
ing strikes, with auditing facilities, with surveys of the in¬ 
dustry and of the trade unions, and with other services which 
might assist the unions to become more effective fighting ma¬ 
chines. The Bureau employs statisticians, economists, en¬ 
gineers and accountants. The Bureau is hired directly by 
unions needing its services. 

At the time of its organization, the Labor Bureau, Inc. 
laid down five basic principles for its conduct: (1) That it 
would charge labor unions the cost of maintaining its ser¬ 
vices, no more, no less; (2) that it would offer its service ex¬ 
clusively to labor and to those working in the interest of la¬ 
bor, as the best service to labor required a special outlook 
and technique; (3) that it would preserve a strictly scientific 
attitude toward the facts, since only in so doing could its help 
be of permanent value to labor; (4) that it would avoid fac¬ 
tional and partisan conflicts within the movement; (5) that 
it must be self-supporting, in order to avoid entanglements of 
subsidies and contributions. It has on the whole maintained 
these principles. So effective has been its work of research 

27 


and publicity that it was employed in 1922 by 144 unions, 
and has opened offices in five large centers. It has made 
for itself a permanent place in the trade union world. 

Further Research Agencies 

For several years past the railway brotherhoods and the 
railway crafts have employed a number of able economists 
in their work, while other unions, such as the Amalgamated 
Clothing Workers, are developing their own research bu¬ 
reaus. For a few years the I. W. W. employed the Technical 
Alliance, an organization of engineers, to work out plans for 
industrial reorganization. The economists employed by the 
various labor groups have incidentally done valuable work 
in presenting the claims of organized labor to the economic 
world and to the public, and, on the other hand, have helped 
.abor to see its larger opportunities for service. 

The Rand School of Social Science has at times employed 
researchers who have aided labor during industrial disputes. 
Its Research Department is now devoting itself to the prep¬ 
aration of the American Labor Year Book, which records 
the progress of labor in all of its manifestations both here and 
abroad. Other bureaus which have been of expert assistance 
to labor at various times are the Bureau of Industrial Re¬ 
search and the American Civil Liberties Union. The latter 
organization has done remarkable work in assisting labor to 
oppose any infringement of its civil liberties, particularly 
during strikes. 


C. HEALTH ACTIVITIES 

Trade unionists are realizing increasingly that they can¬ 
not afford to regard the health of their members as a prob¬ 
lem to be met solely by the individual workers or by the ac¬ 
tion of the state, that it is a union problem as much as are 
the problems of higher wages and shorter hours. 

The Union Health Center 

In this belief, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers 
in 1919 organized a Union Health Center in New York, main¬ 
tained entirely by the workers for the purpose of improving 
the health of trade union members. They now conduct, at 

28 


their well equipped center, 131 E. 17th Street, New York 
City, medical and dental clinics, run on a cost basis, and an 
extensive Health Information Service. 

The Medical Department examines candidates for ad¬ 
mission to the union, certifies members for sick benefit funds, 
gives medical service during strikes and other disturbances, 
conducts life-extension examinations and general health ex¬ 
aminations and arranges for treatments by specialists. It 
has a well equipped x-ray department and laboratory, and is 
planning a complete drug store and other services. The Den¬ 
tal Department treats several thousand workers during the 
year. 

Workers 5 Health Bureau Appears 

Three years after the formation of the Union Health Cen¬ 
ter, a national Workers’ Health Bureau was formed to give 
aid to all unions seeking to combat those conditions in their 
trades which are undermining the health of their members. 
In July, 1922, the Bureau undertook an investigation of the 
causes of disease in the painters’ trade. Under the Bureau’s 
direction—at the request of District No. 9 of the Brother¬ 
hood of Painters—the health of 267 painters was examined. 
Examination showed that over sixty per cent of the men were 
suffering from occupational diseases and thirty-five per 
cent from non-occupational diseases, while but five per 
cent were in normal health. Dr. Hayhurst of Ohio State Uni¬ 
versity, employed to analyze the results of the examination, 
came to the conclusion that the men were “suffering to a very 
considerable extent from the effects of lead and other poisons 
to which they have been subjected.” As a result of this 
investigation the painters are organizing a health bureau of 
their own. 

Labor Camps 

For the purpose of conserving the health of their mem¬ 
bers, and at the same time of providing a place for relaxa¬ 
tion and recreation, several locals of the International La¬ 
dies’ Garment Workers in New York purchased, a few years 
ago, a beautiful tract of land near Delaware Water Gap, Pa., 
together with a group of well-equipped buildings formerly 
used as a hotel by wealthy German families. Unity House, 
as it is called,—now owned by the N. Y. Joint Board of the 
I. L. G. W. U.—is utilized each year by hundreds of mem- 

29 


bers and friends of the New York unions. In 1920, the 
Rand School of Social Science bought a similar tract near 
Unity House. Camp Tamiment, the tented city surrounding 
Lake Tamiment, has already become an exceedingly popular 
resort for New York trade unionists. It provides an oppor¬ 
tunity not only for walking, tennis, boating, and similar 
sports, but for educational lectures, for dramatics, for his¬ 
toric pageants, and, not the least, for the development of 
warm friendships between members of various unions and be¬ 
tween members of labor unions and the so-called intelli¬ 
gentsia. Similar encampments, union sanitaria, etc. are be¬ 
coming ever more frequent in labor circles. 

FOR DISCUSSION. 

For several subjects under this heading see The Intellectual and 
the Labor Movement, by George Soule (10 cent pamphlet, 
published by the League for Industrial Democracy). For 
Labor Journalism, secure copies of various journals here 
referred to for comparative purposes. The attention of 
students is also called to the Labour Review, organ of the 
British Labour party, 33 Eccleston Square, London, S. W. 
1, England; the Labour Monthly, an organ of the left wing 
of the movement, 162 Buckingham Palace Road, London, 
S. W. 1, England; the International Labour Movement, 
61 Vondelstraat, Amsterdam Holland, and the International 
Labour Review, Labour Office, League of Nations, Geneva, 
Switzerland; see also The Press and the Organization of 
Society, by Norman Angell (London: Labour Pub. Co., 
1922); The Brass Check, by Upton Sinclair (Pasadena, 
Calif., Author) ; Teachings of the Labor Press of the 
U. S., by W. E. Leonard (Walla Walla, Wash.: Whitman 
College, 1921) ; Report on the Steel Strike of 1919, by Inter¬ 
church World Movement (N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 
1920) ; Liberty and the News and Public Opinion, by Walter 
Lippmann (N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1920); Some 
Newspapers and Neivspaper Men, by Oswald Garrison 
Villard, (N. Y. Knopf, 1923) ; for Labor Research see the 
literature of the Labor Bureau, Inc., 2 W. 43rd St., N. Y. 
City; the American Labor Year Book; Labor Age, April, 
1922; Locomotive Engineers* Journal, May, 1923; for Labor 
Health Service, see literature of Workers’ Health Bureau, 
799 Broadway, N. Y. City and of the Union Health Center, 
131 E. 17th St., N. Y. C. and Labor Age, Sept., 1922. 

30 


Subjects for Discussion— Why is there need for labor journal¬ 
ism in this country? What suggestions for improvement 
in labor journals in your vicinity do you make? What 
plan have you for the financing and management of labor 
papers? To what extent are trade unions in your vicinity 
utilizing trained research men? What services could re¬ 
search render to the unions? How may technicians help 
labor in the building up of a cooperative social order? 
Why should trade unions establish health services? In¬ 
vestigate the need for a health service on the part of one 
or more trade unions in your vicinity and outline a plan 
for such a service. 


VI. FURTHER FEATURES 


A. AMALGAMATION 

L ABOR in America is giving increased attention to the 
development of industrial unionism. For many years 
the chief advocates of industrial unionism as opposed to 
craft unionism were members of the Industrial Workers 
of the World, although a number of American Federation 
of labor unions, such as the United Mine Workers, are in¬ 
dustrial unions. Of late, the older unions are realizing in¬ 
creasingly the need for greater unity on the economic field, 
particularly in view of the phenomenal development of the 
big combinations of capital which are pitted against labor. 
They have formed departments for allied trades—the Build¬ 
ing Trades Department of the A. F. of L., the Metal Trades 
Department, etc. They have cooperated locally and in some 
instances have formed definite federations. 

Recent Developments 

In March, 1922, the Chicago Federation of Labor issued 
a call for the consolidation of all craft unions into industrial 
unions, and, by the spring of 1923, more than a dozen state 
federations of labor, five international unions and hundreds 
of city centrals had gone on record in favor of the amalga¬ 
mation principle. In the service of amalgamation the Trade 
Union Educational League, of which William Z. Foster is 
the moving spirit, has been working incessantly during the 

31 




past few years. The League has endeavored to show just 
how amalgamations may be effected in various trades and 
has urged that radicals remain in the larger unions and 
adopt the policy of “boring from within.” Its recent close 
connection with the Red Trade Union International and its 
prominence in the conference which gave rise to the Fed¬ 
erated Farmer-Labor party, an organization largely controll¬ 
ed by the communist group and opposed by the leaders of 
Chicago labor, are at present hampering the organization of 
its work in behalf of industrial unionism inside of the A. 
F. of L. 

The Needle Trades Alliance 

The latest step toward closer unity in trade union ranks 
is the formation of the Needle Trades Alliance in Septem¬ 
ber, 1923. The unions represented include the International 
Ladies’ Garment Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Work¬ 
ers, the United Cloth Hat and Capmakers’ Union, the Inter¬ 
national Fur Workers’ Union and the Journeymen Tailors’ 
Union. 

These five unions, numbering 300,000 workers, agreed to 
render moral and financial assistance to each other during 
strikes and other industrial emergencies, and to carry out 
jointly all activities—such as organization work in small 
cities—as are better adapted to cooperative than to separate 
action. The Alliance will meet annually and its Executive 
Council, at least every three months. A permanent secretary 
has been appointed to assist in carrying out the purpose of 
the organization. 

Pros and Cons 

Amalgamationists argue that closer union will make for 
greater power in time of negotiations and strikes, will mini¬ 
mize jurisdictional disputes, will increase the financial power 
of the unions, lead to economies in maintaining trade union 
organizations, develop a spirit of solidarity, and aid in in¬ 
creased control over the nation’s industries. 

The opponents of amalgamation, on the other hand, point 
out the difficulties involved in inducing the average trade 
unionist to work with members of other crafts and to strike 
in furtherance of the latters’ demands, particularly when 
these are members of less skilled trades. There is also the 
practical difficulty of inducing those who have spent their 

82 


lives in building up an organization to merge their union 
with new and unknown elements, and perhaps in so doing to 
lose their own power in the determination of policies. The 
insurance features of certain of the railway brotherhoods 
also present certain legal obstacles to amalgamation. Further¬ 
more, “whatever else may be added, each particular group of 
workers absolutely needs his own organization, which he can 
follow in whatever industries he may successively exercise 
his particular craft or occupation/’* 

B. UNEMPLOYMENT FUND 

One of the latest constructive developments in the trade 
union movement has been the establishment of an unemploy¬ 
ment fund to take care of the worker when out of work. Pio¬ 
neers in this development have been the International Ladies’ 
Garment Workers in Cleveland and the Amalgamated Cloth¬ 
ing Workers in Chicago. Unemployment, declared the ad¬ 
vocates of the unemployment fund, is one of the tragedies of 
modern industry. It is beyond the control of the worker. It 
is due to defects in the management and control of industry. 
Its cost should be considered as legitimate a charge against 
industry as are wages during periods of industrial activity 
or the expense of maintaining machinery or the cost of in¬ 
dustrial accidents. 

Place Responsibility on Employers 

Employers can do much toward making employment 
steady. As Sidney Webb maintains, “the seasonal alterna¬ 
tions of overpressure and slackness [in the so-called seasonal 
trades] are due only to failures in adjustment. There is no 
more inevitability about them than about the rattling of a 
motor car.” But employers will not in general try to remedy 
the situation unless they are in some way penalized for un¬ 
steady conditions, and rewarded for minimizing employment 
fluctuations. If the state assumes the entire burden—and its 
efforts have thus far been but feeble—there will be no cen¬ 
tering of responsibility and burden on the employer—an “in¬ 
dispensable first step in the eradication of the evil.” 

* Sidney Webb in The Labour Magazine, Sept., 1923. 

33 



The Amalgamated Plan 


The unemployment fund must thus be “established and 
supported by the industry and segregated for the purpose 
of meeting that cost alone.” On the basis of this contention, 
the Chicago branch of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers 
has recently entered into a contract with the employers which 
provides that each worker shall set aside each week one-and- 
a-half percent of his earning toward an unemployment fund, 
and that the employer shall contribute a like amount. This 
sum shall be held by a Board of Trustees, consisting partly 
of representatives of the workers, partly of representatives 
of the employers, with one or two neutral members. During 
a period of unemployment, the worker shall obtain from this 
fund some forty per cent of his average wages, but in no 
case more than $20 a week. This does not apply to cessa¬ 
tion of work due to a strike. The fund shall be a continuing 
one, and, in case of a break between the employer and the 
union, it shall be disposed of “in such a manner as will best 
carry out the spirit and purpose of the agreement.” 

Another innovation in this general field has been the or¬ 
ganization of unemployment exchanges. The Amalgamated 
exchanges recently opened in Chicago are being watched with 
keen interest by trade unions throughout the country. 

C. ARBITRATION OF DISPUTES 

It is not without significance that the unemployment fund 
was established as a result of the efforts of the Amalgamated 
Clothing Workers of Chicago who have been the pioneers in 
building up representative government in industry. In 1911, 
the Chicago Amalgamated—then members of the United 
Garment Workers—made an agreement with Hart, Schaffner 
& Marx for the organization of a unique machinery for the 
adjudication of disputes, extended in 1919 throughout the 
entire Chicago clothing market. In substance this machinery 
provides for the organization of a Trade Board of five, two 
selected by each side to represent the interests of employer 
and workers, and one—the “impartial chairman”—mutually 
agreed upon by the union and the employer. In addition it 
provides for a Board of Arbitration of three, also with its 
impartial chairman. 


34 


Trade and Arbitration Boards 

In case of a dispute arising under the collective agreement 
arrived at between the union and the employers, complaint 
is made to the Trade Board. The matter is investigated by 
deputies appointed by both sides, and, in many instances, 
is settled by these deputies. If they can reach no decision, it 
is brought before the Trade Board, which endeavors to de¬ 
cide the issue in the light of their interpretation of the col¬ 
lective agreement. A final appeal may be made to the Board 
of Arbitration, which shall have final jurisdiction. From 
April 1, 1912 to June, 1914, the deputies adjusted 1,178 
cases or 84.1 per cent of the total; the Trade Board, 206, or 
14.7 per cent, and the Board of Arbitration—which dealt 
largely with the general principles involved, 17— or 1.2 per 
cent. 

Advantages 

Both sides believe that they obtain certain definite ad¬ 
vantages from this machinery for adjustment. Employer 
and employed set forth their hopes in the preamble of the 
Hart, Schaffner & Marx agreement in part as follows: 

“On the part of the employer it is the intention and expecta¬ 
tion that this compact of peace will result in the establishment 
and maintenance of a high order of discipline and efficiency 
by the willing cooperation of union and workers, rather than 
by the old method of surveillance and coercion; that by the 
exercise of this discipline all stoppages and interruptions of 
work, and all wilful violations of rules will cease; that good 
standards of workmanship and conduct will be maintained and 
a proper quantity, quality and cost of production will be as¬ 
sured; and that out of its operation will issue such cooperation 
and good will between employers, foremen, union and work¬ 
ers as will prevent misunderstanding and friction and make for 
good team work, good business, mutual advantage and mutual 
respect .... 

“On the part of the union, it is the intention and expecta¬ 
tion that this compact will, with the cooperation of the em¬ 
ployer, operate in such a way as to maintain, strengthen, and 
solidify its organization, so that it may be made strong enough, 
and efficient enough, to cooperate as contemplated in the pre- 


35 


ceding paragraph; and also that it may be strong enough to 
command the respect of the employer without being forced to 
resort to militant or unfriendly measures.” 

This machinery, now in at least partial operation in sev¬ 
eral other centers, has tended to stabilize the industry, re¬ 
duce labor turnover, prevent unfair discharges, increase pro¬ 
ductivity, give the workers a valuable knowledge of the many 
problems of management, and place the relations between 
worker and employer on a higher basis. The decisions of the 
impartial chairmen are developing principles of industrial 
conduct of genuine significance.* 

Summary 

These are some of the newer tendencies in the American 
labor movement. As J. S. Potofsky, assistant secretary of 
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, declared: 

“A modern labor union has to do much more than merely 
bargain for wages, hours and conditions. Those are important, 
but when hours and wages have been more or less standard¬ 
ized, what is the next step for the union? The union must 
seek new sources of power and influence; it must entrench itself 
still more firmly in the life of the country if it is to expand its 
service to its members, securing for them more and more 
gains, such as protection against unemployment, disease, old 
age. The union must make every effort to supply all the needs 
of its members, material, social and spiritual. This is why we 
carry on educational work, publish books, build Amalgamated 
Temples, help our fellow workers. This is why we establish 
amalgamated banks. Our banking enterprises are steps in the 
direction of strength and new unity in the ranks of labor.” 
[Italics Mine] 

The large majority of those who believe in a new social 
order in which industry is socially owned and democratically 
controlled consider every measure which strengthens the 
physical and intellectual powers of organized labor, which 
develops a spirit of solidarity, which gives the workers a 
better training in the conduct of industry and of government, 
which brings the technician to the service of labor, and which 
extends the sphere of production for service, as steps in the 

* More recently the machinists in the Baltimore and Ohio Railway shops 
have been working out a similar plan, under the direction of the International 
Association of Machinists. 


36 



right direction. While many of the constructive features 
mentioned in this syllabus may seem unrelated, each one, 
declare these advocates, adds its share to the resistless stream 
which is carrying labor forward toward a cooperative world. 

There are other advocates of these measures, it must be 
added, who see in the majority of these innovations merely 
a means of removing some of the worst evils of capitalism 
and of lessening the demand of labor for the overthrow of 
the present order. What the verdict of history will be time 
alone will tell. 

FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS. 

Literature —Recent developments in the Amalgamation Move¬ 
ment are being treated by Benjamin Stolberg in a pam¬ 
phlet which is being published by the League for Industrial 
Democracy. See also Marian Savage’s Industrial Unionism 
(N. Y.: Dutton, 1922) ; Paul Brissenden’s Industrial Work¬ 
ers of the World (N. Y.: Longman’s Green, 1919); 
Budish’s and Soule’s New Unionism (N. Y.: Harcourt, 
Brace & Co., 1920) ; Labor Age, August, 1923; literature of 
the Trade Union Educational League, 108 No. LaSalle 
St., Chicago, Ill., and of the American Federation of Labor, 
Washington, D. C., and files of the Headgear Worker, Ad¬ 
vance, Justice, etc. 

On Unemployment Fund, see A Proposal for an Unemploy¬ 
ment Fund in the Men’s Clothing Industry, by Leo Wol- 
man; New Republic, June 20 1923; files of Advance, Jus¬ 
tice, and of the Review of the American Association for 
Labor Legislation; Business Cycles and Unemployment by 
National Bureau of Economic Research (N. Y.: N. B. E. 
R, 1923). 

On Arbitration of Disputes see The Clothing Workers of 
Chicago, by the research Department of the Joint Board 
of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Chicago (1922) ; 
Convention proceedings of the A C. W. A.; Collective 
Agreements in the Men’s Clothing Industry, by C. H. 
Winslow in Bulletin No. 198, U. S. Dept, of Labor, Sept., 
1916; Shop Comittee and Industrial Councils, Report of 
Bureau of State Research, New Jersey, No. 18, July, 1919, 
Ch. V.; Judicial Law-Making as exemplified in Industrial 
Arbitration, Prof. J. H. Tufts, Columbia Law Review, 
May, 1921; Frontiers of Control, by Carter Goodrich (N. 
Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1921) ; War Time Strikes and 


37 


X 


their Adjustment, by Alex. M. Bing (N. Y.: Dutton, 
1921) ; Law and Order in Industry, by Julius Henry Cohen 
(N. Y.: Macmillan, 1916). 

Subjects for Discussion— What are the forces making for 
and against amalgamation in the railroad unions, the textile 
unions, the building trades, etc.? Is amalgamation likely 
to be brought about primarily through agitation or through 
changes in industrial control and in machine production? 
What is the attitude of the A. F. of L. toward industrial 
unionism? Are industrial unions necessarily revolution¬ 
ary? Are the craft unions necessarily conservative? What 
are the relative advatages of Foster’s doctrine of “boring 
from within’’ the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. doctrine 
of organizing competing unions? Will the formation of 
a labor party, by developing unity of action on the political 
field, aid in the movement for industrial unionism? What 
steps are generally advisable on the road to complete amal¬ 
gamation? Why should unemployment be a charge against 
the industry? What are the advantages and disadvantages 
of the Amalgamated plan? Is this plan a substitute for 
state action? Would more steady employment be likely to 
weaken or to strengthen the efforts of the workers to con¬ 
struct a new social order? Why? Does machinery for 
the adjustment of trade disputes such as that which is being 
worked out in the clothing industry make for a more or less 
radical organization? Why? What are your constructive 
suggestions for adjustment of disputes in the trade union 
world? What features mentioned in this pamphlet are, in 
your opinion, of greatest immediate value to organized 
labor? Which are the most likely to assist in the building 
up a new social order? Which are likely to retard that 
order? Make an outline of the features which, in your 
opinion, should be added to one or more trade unions of 
your acquaintance. 


38 





LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 


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and various leaflets and pamphlets. Pamphlets al¬ 
ready published include: 

Irrepressible America. By Scott Nearing. 1922. 
10 cents. 

An analysis of the social thinking of average 
Americans and of the need for educational work. 

The Challenge of Waste . By Stuart Chase. 1922. 
10 cents. 

An incisive study of the wastes inherent in pro- 
duction for private property. 

The Intellectual and the Labor Movement. By George 
Soule. 1923. 10 cents. 

A discussion of ways of cooperation between 
“intellectuals” and organized labor. 

The Challenge of War. By Norman Thomas. 1923. 
10 cents. 

An economic interpretation of the causes of 
war, with special reference to the present situa¬ 
tion. 

Public Ownership. By Harry W. Laidler. 1923. 
15 cents. 

A survey of the extent of municipal, state and 
national ownership of industry here and abroad, 
during and after the world war, and an ap¬ 
praisal of its social significance. 

Recent Developments in the American Labor Move¬ 
ment. By Harry W. Laidler. 1923. 10 cents. 

A Syllabus for college, labor and general dis¬ 
cussion groups. 

The above pamphlets (except Public Ownership) 
sell at 10 cents a piece, 15 for $1.00. Special rates 
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